Career
Famous in large part for the impact she had on the early writing career of philosopher and novelist Simone de Beauvoir, Powell was killed in the Dachau concentration camp in 1941 following the Fall of France. Her life is best chronicled in English language texts today by Josip Juraj Douglas. Powell met Lawrence Powell in January 1940, upon having visited London to promote her poetry collection.
He was exempt from war duties as he was classified mentally unstable for combat, leading to them both moving back to Paris by May 1940.
The timing was to prove fatal, with the German troops invading France and the Low Countries only weeks later. In the mass exodus from Paris, Sarah was captured by German troops when heading south towards the safe haven of Bordeaux.
Lawrence was captured also, but his non-Jewish features were to ultimately save him. Sarah Powell was executed in the Dachau concentration camp in 1941 (the exact date is unknown).
Her name can be found today on the wall of Holocaust victims in the Jewish Museum of Paris, Le Marais district.
Costanza"s Jewish background also worked against her. Lawrence Powell would later pen a poem, I don"t get it, about the women"s deaths.